Year of the Six Emperors

The Year of the Six Emperors was a political crisis in the Roman Empire that occurred in 238 CE as a result of the rebellion against Emperor Maximinus Thrax by Gordian I. Gordian had his son crowned caesar as "Gordian II", and the two of them were confirmed as emperors by the Roman Senate in Carthage. A twenty-man committee was established in Rome to rule the empire as the Gordians headed to take power in Rome before Thrax could return; however, the Gordians were defeated and killed at Carthage by Thrax's partisans. Two members of the committee, Pupienus and Balbinus, were appointed co-emperors by the Roman Senate, and Pupienus entrusted Balbinus with maintaining public order in Rome as he headed to Ravenna to fight Thrax's army. Thrax was murdered at Ravenna, allowing for Pupienus to return to Rome with his German bodyguards. Balbinus, who had failed to keep public order, feared that Pupienus and his Germans were going to kill him, and the two emperors lived on opposite sides of the capitol as a result. The Praetorian Guard, which wanted to take power for itself, hacked both emperors to death in the Praetorian Barracks and appointed Gordian I's grandson and Gordian II's nephew Gordian III crowned emperor. This brought an end to the bloody "Year of the Six Emperors", but Gordian III would not live to see an improvement in Rome's state; he was killed at Misiche in 244 by the Sassanids, and the Third-Century Crisis continued.